Forum global sur la sécurité alimentaire et la nutrition (Forum FSN)

Accra/Abidjan/Rome - The number of undernourished people in sub-Saharan Africa has increased mainly due to the impact of conflict and climate change with the situation pointing to the urgent need to build affected communities' resilience and to find peaceful solutions that strengthen food security,  FAO said today.

The prevalence of chronic undernourishment appears to have risen from 20.8 to 22.7 percent between 2015 and 2016, according to FAO's Africa Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition report (2017).

This year's report, which features the theme: "The Food Security and Nutrition - Conflict Nexus: Building Resilience for Food Security, Nutrition and Peace" was launched today at the joint FAO/WHO Africa Regional Symposium on Sustainable Food Systems for Healthy Diets and Improved Nutrition, taking place in Abidjan from 16 to 17 November 2017.  

The FAO Global Early Warning - Early Action Report on Food Security and Agriculture for the period October-December 2017 has been released. The Global Early Warning - Early Action System aims to translate forecasts and early warnings into anticipatory action. The Global EWEA report is a quarterly forward-looking analytical summary of major disaster risks to food security and agriculture. 

Please download the full report here: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i7813e.pdf. 

FAO/GIEWS has released the latest issue of the Crop Prospects and Food Situation quarterly report that focuses on developments affecting the food situation of developing countries and Low-Income Food-Deficit Countries. The report also includes an overview of global cereal production prospects and a table highlighting countries that require external assistance for food, identifying the primary causes of the local food crises.

HIGHLIGHTS

Counties requiring external assistance for food: FAO estimates that 37 countries are in need of external assistance for food in the world. Persisting conflicts have continued to acutely affect agricultural production and food security conditions. Weather shocks, including floods, hurricanes and droughts, have compounded the fragile conditions in some of the conflict-affected countries and also resulted in production shortfalls, adversely impacting food availability and access in other countries.

Africa: Northern Nigeria, Somalia and South Sudan continue to be affected by severe food insecurity, while drought in parts of East Africa has curbed agricultural outputs and sustained high food prices. Wetter conditions in Southern Africa resulted in production recoveries, leading to significantly reduced food insecure numbers, while severe localized floods in West Africa have affected larger numbers of people.

Asia: Despite severe localized floods and droughts in some countries, production in the Far East is forecast to increase in 2017. Conflicts continue to intensely impact agriculture and food security in Iraq, Syrian Arab Republic and Yemen. Elsewhere in the Near East, generally good weather boosted production.

Latin America and the Caribbean: In the Caribbean, the impact of hurricanes is expected to depress agricultural production for second season crops in the affected areas and adversely impact food security conditions. In South America, record cereal outputs are forecast in Argentina and Brazil in 2017.

Please download the full report here: http://www.fao.org/3/a-i7830e.pdf.

FAO is developing a programme of work that will provide evidence on the diversity of pathways, the drivers and the impacts of distress or voluntary migration, labor and people’s mobility in a context of accelerated urbanization and increased pressure on natural resources. The programme gives importance to the role of policies, governance and institutions in steering change processes in origins and reducing challenges in destination areas. Evidence from this programme of work will feed into FAO’s normative work and policy support to countries and multistakeholder governance platforms in promoting sustainable development, food security and nutrition. The programme will provide background material and support the Global Migration Group negotiations to develop a Global Compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.

In the context of the programme, FAO invites the submission of papers to be presented on a technical workshop on:

The drivers and impacts of migration and labor mobility in origins and destinations: Building the evidence base for policies that promote safe, orderly and regular people’s and labor mobility for poverty reduction and sustainable development

The workshop will be held the 1st of December 2017, at FAO headquarters in Rome.